Elastic horseshoe with metal reenforcements



June 7, 1932. HARSEM 1,861,695

ELASTIC HORSESHOE WITH METAL REENFORCEMENTS Filed May 11, 1931 1 Havsevn [NVEN Talk Patented June 7, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT QFFICE PETER HARSEM, OF OSLO, NORWAY, ASSIGNOR TO IMPER ATO R HESTESKO .AKTIESEL- SKAP, OF TONSBERG, NORWAY ELASTIC HORSESHOE VTI'IH METAL REENFOR-GEMENTS Application filed May 11, 1931, Serial No. 536,606, and in Norway December 24, 1930.

The present invention relates to the manufacture of elastic horseshoes, such as rubber shoes, having arranged in the rubber a stiff metal construct-ion, serving partly to stiffen the shoe and partly as a seating for the nail. The said inlaid stiff material in the horseshoe which here shall be described is of such construction that it does not prevent the adjusting of the shoe sideways when being fitted on to the hoofs of different sizes. This invention also relates to a method of manufacture of the skeleton inlay, which will be apparent from the following description.

In the manufacture of rubber horseshoes, it is of very great importance that the shoe shall be adapted to sideways adjustment according to the hoof of the horse. It has previously been suggested to obtain this adjustability by splitting the rear end and adjusting the two branches of the shoe, and after the proper width has been found, to fit same by means of a metal plate or the like, fixed to the ends of the two branches.

In order to facilitate such adjustment of the shoe, it is necessary that the metal skeleton construction of the shoe consists of a plurality of smaller pieces, in such a way that they do not prevent the bending out to the sides of the branches of the shoe.

Just as it is of great importance to be able to perform sideways adjustments of the shoe, it is equally important that the shoe should be stiff and resist bending in the vertical plane or direction, and one object of this invention is to provide a rubber horseshoe, having molded into the rubber substance a skeleton construction of metal, having the prop erty that it will not resist sideways adjustment of the shoe branches, but will prevent deformation of the shoe in the vertical direction.

According to this invention, this result is obtained by building the inlaid metal members of greater or smaller pieces, having such form and location that they will fit into each other or be adapted to be riveted to each other, thereby forming achainconstruction which will be stiff in one plane and adjustable or adapted to bend in the other plane normal to the first.

In rubber shoes of the above-mentioned type, it is customary to provide apertures in the stiff members, through which the nails provided for fastening the shoe to the hoof may be inserted, the said member thereby serving as an abutment for the head of the nail. When the inlaid member has the form in cross-section of a channel iron, the two webs of which are located horizontally or parallelly to the shoe surface, there must naturally in order to accommodate the nails, be arranged corresponding apertures through both webs, and hereby the difficulty arises that the direction of the nail, when it is put in,

corresponding relation between the two holes in such away that the direction of the nail into the hoof of the horse will be taken care of.

In order to prevent undue expense, it is necessary that the material used in forming the metal construction be chosen among those which can easily be formed into proper shape by means of punching, i. e., rather soft material must be chosen. The shape of the metal construction must further be such that part of same extends to that surface of the shoe which will face the hoof in order to ensure proper fixing of the shoe. If rubber is left between the metal construction to which the nails are fixed and the hoof, a springy action will be effected 'on the nails, and the shoe will soon become loose.

With certain horses a metal wearing piece 7 One object of the present invention is to provide a horseshoe of the type described, where in addition to the metal construction of soft material a piece of high grade steel or the like is connected to the said construction, extending to the underside and the outside of the shoe and serving as a wearing piece.

This wearing piece can, if desired, be provided with a boring, serving, when desired, to fasten pegs or caulks underthe shoe.

To make the invention more easily understood it will in the following be described in details with reference to the drawing, illustrating a'nembodiment only, and at the same time further novel features will be disclosed.

In the drawing:

Fig. 1 illustrates diagrammatically the idea of the metal construction. 7

Fig. 2 is a broken-away section on the line IIII of Fig. 1. p

- Fig. 3 shows a longitudinal section through two links of. another embodiment of the metal construction.

Fig. 4 shows, seen from below, the preferred embodiment of the metal construction.

Fig. 5 shows as a half product a brokenaway piece of the construction shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 illustrates the method used according to the invention for providing the metal construction shown in Figs. 4 and 5 with the holes for the shank of the nails.

Fig. 7 shows a cross-section through the front end of a shoe provided with a wearing piece of harder material.

Fig. 8 is a cross-section on the line .VIIIVIII of Fig. 7.

In the drawing, Fig. 1, the outer contours of the shoe are indicated in dotted lines. In the shoe which is made of soft material, such as rubber, a number of stiffening members 1, having any suitable form, are embedded in the molded material. This member can, if desired, have upwardly projecting side edges 12 (Figs. 4, 7, 8), serving as side abutments for the hoof. The stiif inlay pieces are provided with apertures 11 for the nails, serving to fasten the shoe to the hoof.

As willybe understood, the inlaid, stiff member serves at the same time two purposes: first serving as a stiffening member and secondly as an abutment for the nail.

The plurality of pieces 1 are, when molded into the shoe, arranged in such a way that they will overlap each other and may be secured to each other by rivets3 to form an endless chain in connection with the removable back link 4. The rivets 3 allow the different pieces to swing in relation to each other inone plane, but provide a stiff connection in a plane normal to the former.

In Fig. 3 another embodiment is shown, where the different pieces forming the skeleton construction are made of two plates 5 and 6, fastened together in such a way that a fork-like opening 7 will be obtained. On the left side in the drawing the plates are bent together as shown by 8, and this end will exactly fit in between the two plates 5 and 6 of the next member, where these form the fork-like opening 7. When molding these pieces into the shoe, the different pieces are so located that they will fit together and prevent bending in the vertical direction, while at the same time any adjustment of the shoe transverselymay be performed. If desired, the individual pieces may be fixed to each other by means of a rivet or the like 3; however, this'is not always necessary. The pieces may furtherbe provided with apertures 10 and 11 respectively for the head and the shank of the nails (not shown);

In Fig. 4 a preferred embodiment of the invention is shown, seen from below and Without the shoe proper. In this embodiment the construction consists of two main members 1 which correspond to each other and extend substantially along the entire length of the shoe. At the front of the shoe the two pieces 1 are connected to each other by means of an intermediate member 1, and at the rear end the usual plate 4 is provided.

In the manufacture the member 1 is made by punching a plate of soft material in the first step into the form shown in Fig. 5. The plate is provided with apertures 13 at suit able distance from each other, and along one edge it is provided with rectangular apertures14. Then the piece is bent transversely to receive the form of a channel member, as shown in Figs. 4, 6 and 7.

The apertures 13 serve two purposes: first to facilitate the proper bending of the channel transversely to conform with the shape of the shoe, and secondly to form channels for the rubber, so that the rubber inside the channel may be properly connected to the rubber outside the same. The apertures 14 serve as side guides and abutments for the heads of the nails, as will appear from Fig. 6, where the head of the nail is indicated by 15.

After the iron construction has been finished, as shown in Fig. 4, it is molded into the rubber, as shown in Fig. 6. The construction is so arranged in the rubber that the web of the channel, which has no apertures, corresponds to the upper side of the rubber shoe in such a way that the nail 17 of the hoof (Fig. 6) will rest directly on the iron construction.

On different locations around the shoe, the angle of the hoof nail to the horizontal will vary, and it is of great importance that the nail, when put in, shall take the correct direction and stick out through the hoof in such a place that it can easily be bent over. In

Fig. 6 is shown a condition where the nail should pass vertically in order to be correct, see lines II. If the hoof for instance has an incline as indicated by the line II, then the nail must be put in in a direction as indicated by the line IIIIII.

With relation to the complete shoe, the relative angles of the hoof nail are rather fixed; but to provide the iron construction in the condition shown in Fig. 5 with the holes 11 would mean that skilled work and very accurate machinery and tools would have to be used in order to obtain a first-class product and correct relative positioning of the holes 11 and apertures 14. According to this invention, this step is therefore first done after the completion of the shoe, whereby a perfect product is obtained.

A construction as now described is especially adapted to the combination with a wearing piece of hard material as steel. In Figs. 7 and 8 such a construction is shown. It consists of a piece of steel 18 with projecting arms 19, fastened to the iron construction 1 and 1 by means of rivets 3. The piece 1 may of course be eliminated, and the wearing piece 18 may then be substituted for same. The steelwearing piece 18 is especially adapted for removable attaching of spikes, and may for this purpose be provided with a boring 20 with internal treads. When spikes are not used, the aperture 20 may be closed by means of a plug or the like.

In the drawing, the wearing piece is shown fastened to the front of the shoe; but it must be understood that it can also be fastened at other places of the shoe.

I claim A metal reinforcement construction for horseshoes of elastic material, comprising a number of channel-formed sections linked to other sections by means allowing transverse but not vertical bending of the shoe, said channel members being molded into the rubher and being provided with apertures in the lower web adapted to receive the head of the horseshoe nail, and smaller corresponding apertures in the upper web serving to guide and support the shank of the said nail.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name unto this specification.

PETER HARSEM. 

